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Pornography in the Soviet Union was largely suppressed until the final years of the USSR. According to The Pornography and Erotica Debate: USSR, sex in general was viewed as "a wasteful consumer of energies better devoted to the building of Communism." Genrikh Yagoda, the third head of the NKVD, was accused during his trial (besides espionage and high treason) of storing a great number of pornographic films and pictures. Such accusations were also faced by Nikolai Yezhov, who followed Yagoda. More recently, possession could get up to 3 years in prison, or a 3000 ruble fine. The 1988 Soviet film Malenkaya Vera was the first to feature a sex scene. The resolution on Glasnost stated, "Glasnost must not be used...[to] disseminate pornography" but by September 1989, calendars of topless women for the year 1990 were being sold in Moscow.[1]

In 1996 section 242[2] in Russian Criminal Code became a federal legislation that prohibited sale and production of "illegal" pornographic materials (dead link) .[3] The section provides for a penalty of up to 2 years in prison. Authorities missed a critical definition—the one of actual pornography. While pornography is officially illegal to sell in Russia, the law doesn’t spell out in exact terms the subject of the ban. Russian erotica is sold openly in sex shops and DVD stores. Newspapers publish information about police raids on such places on a monthly basis.[citation needed]